Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ 75% of Blairmore residents want a coal mine — so why are outside activists allowed to block it？

00:00:00.000 I'm updating you on the celebrity-driven war on coal in the Crow's Nest Pass.

00:00:05.960 I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:00:08.120 What if your community voted 75% in support of a coal mining project

00:00:33.060 and you stand to lose your home if this job doesn't come for you

00:00:37.080 And then outside celebrity activists get involved to wage a high profile war on the coal mine that's coming to save you.

00:00:49.340 Well, that's exactly what's happening in Blairmore, Alberta.

00:00:52.640 It's on the edge of the Rockies in the Crow's Nest Pass.

00:00:55.480 They've got a massive mine proposed and the people there are having their voices absolutely silenced by high profile celebrities, country music singers, in fact.

00:01:07.080 like Corblund and George Canyon, they have decided that this community should not have this coal mine

00:01:16.660 and they are involved in this citizen-led initiative process to collect signatures to put the question on a referendum, which is insane.

00:01:28.700 The people in this town already had their referendum and they approved of it.

00:01:32.880 Now, there's somebody out there who has taken up this cause, and he has spent a ton of time in the Crow's Nest Pass to ask the people there exactly what this coal mine would mean to them.

00:01:45.020 And it's my friend Robbie Picard from Oil Sand Strong, and he joins me today to update us on his work.

00:01:52.260 Take a listen.

00:01:52.700 joining me now is my good friend robbie picard from oil sand strong and oil and gas world magazine

00:02:05.720 and he's been waging a misinformation information campaign against the war on coal here in alberta

00:02:15.220 and robbie i wanted to have you back on because we talked about this before you said you had some

00:02:19.680 regrets around how you didn't go hard on the war on coal, because it's really just an extension of

00:02:26.660 on the war on oil and gas. And instead of dwelling in your regrets, you've taken action. So tell us

00:02:34.120 what's going on. So first things first, I am reminded when I first met you 10 years ago,

00:02:43.420 we're almost on our 10 year anniversary, we need to do something to celebrate that,

00:02:48.020 that is coming up in july i thought she checked me out the other day so here's the thing when i

00:02:54.620 first started advocating for oil and gas a particular oil time i got a lot of hate i got

00:03:01.820 a lot of hate like you're butchering the planet it's okay if you lose your home um and over time

00:03:09.640 when people understood how much they needed oil and they needed the money from it it got a little

00:03:16.380 easier and i kind of forgot what it was like to be in the heart of a real fight um so i have spent

00:03:23.140 a lot of time in the crows nest pass particularly in a small town called blair moore and i estimate

00:03:28.900 when i'm done i'm gonna have about 250 entities done and these are all people who support getting

00:03:37.460 you know that new coal mine that the the grassy mountain mine open um it's basically like a

00:03:43.400 reclamation project because the coal that's already there is met coal and it would be kind

00:03:49.120 of a cleanup from the mine from many years ago so i've just been hitting hard and i am shocked

00:03:56.180 by like let's just say i i'm a so-called environmentalist and i don't support the

00:04:02.600 coal mine i can understand that i can live with that but the actual lack of empathy for people

00:04:09.120 who are worried about losing their homes or being stuck with, you know, no future.

00:04:15.900 And Blairmore and the whole Crowsnest Pass area is a very, very poor place.

00:04:21.740 And they're surviving.

00:04:23.280 Don't get me wrong.

00:04:24.120 It's like it's kind of slowly dying in a sense.

00:04:28.400 But I mean, it's not all bad.

00:04:30.300 But that being said, they want prosperity.

00:04:34.080 And a lot of the people that live there work in different coal mines in British Columbia

00:04:38.320 anyway.

00:04:39.120 So I am just shocked that these very wealthy people that are opposing the coal mine, and I don't ever want to be in a fight with ranchers versus coal workers because I think they're both important, but let's just be honest.

00:04:54.260 You have a very rich municipality picking on a very poor one, and I am blown away when I say, hey, well, this person can't put their kid through college or going to lose their home.

00:05:05.180 Well, that's just the cost of of of how not having coal.

00:05:10.160 I just don't agree with it.

00:05:12.140 Now, tell us about the people behind the war on coal, because there is a citizen led initiative, a referendum petition right now being canvassed to stop the proposed coal mine there.

00:05:27.920 And it's being done by some high profile people.

00:05:31.200 And those people actually don't live there.

00:05:34.200 no they don't and this what it is basically it has to do with grazing rights and there's a group

00:05:42.560 of people who do not want it because it could affect their grazing right so they're getting

00:05:47.500 these celebrities of like you know core blunt and and whatever the other the other country singer is

00:05:53.040 and then they're they're trying to but none of them live there and they i i've spent a lot of

00:05:58.320 time in that community not everybody supports it i there's a people that don't support it but the

00:06:02.620 vast majority of people that live in the Blairmore, you know, Crosnest Pass area, they support this

00:06:08.620 project. They want the project. And I think here's the real kicker. The tax base in the

00:06:16.940 Crosnest Pass, 80, over 80% comes from residential homes. That's what pays for the water, the sewer,

00:06:26.140 the garbage removal event space. I want to put that in perspective on a flipping. Fort McMurray,

00:06:32.340 95 percent of our taxes don't come from residents it comes from industry industry is why we can

00:06:38.560 have mcdonald island park or kaufland recreation center or ice rinks you name it right and the

00:06:44.980 town because it's so deprived of anything because it's in this weird little place in between bc

00:06:50.980 coal mines they don't get the benefits of industry now the other country music singer who has joined

00:06:58.780 the fight is george canyon and that was kind of a surprise to me to see george canyon opposing

00:07:05.460 this proposed coal mine because he has formerly run as a nomination candidate for the conservative

00:07:11.980 party of canada and to see him on the other side of this fossil fuel development and these good

00:07:19.500 blue collar well-paying salt of the earth jobs was a bit of a shock to me actually it was a bit

00:07:26.340 of a shock to me the same way Corb Lund was Corb Lund for people who don't know he his most popular

00:07:32.120 song was a song that celebrates the grit and essentialness of our oil and gas workers and

00:07:40.840 then to see him turn around and oppose coal jobs when it's you know really the same story

00:07:47.280 surprising to me but you know he's got NDP friends from what I understand but George Canyon

00:07:52.640 to join this fight sort of blew my mind yeah i like look i think what this has to boil down to

00:08:00.160 is everyone needs to have a conversation we need to get the facts because i'm from my understanding

00:08:06.380 is that the water release is going to be fine they're going to treat the water and i've been

00:08:12.360 researching salium a lot and a lot of health products have it there's a shortage of it for

00:08:17.660 cattle the cattle are deprived of it and they need it so the the water argument to me is not adding

00:08:24.720 up what i see is you got i mean george canyon if you google his net worth or you know check it out

00:08:32.060 in chat to chat ai or whatever he's worth 10 million dollars and has a massive ranch i don't

00:08:37.420 know what core lund is worth i mean he doesn't look like he's worth a ton of money george canyon

00:08:41.800 kind of does he's got that statuous like rich cowboy rancher you know for blend kind of looks

00:08:47.180 like a disheveled folks here but either way you know i don't judge but that being said um

00:08:53.800 it seems to me like a bunch of really rich established people who kind of have

00:08:58.100 money are trying to stop not rich self-of-the-earth miners from making enough money so they can

00:09:06.760 better their lives and i think and i'm shocked to this day like it's not and i'm not just i'm

00:09:14.600 fighting for coal across the board every coal town in alberta that has been shut down and picked on

00:09:21.580 but i am still shocked how you know an elite person can be just like no empathy for the coal

00:09:28.420 miner like i met this guy he's been in um he's been in that area since 1967 and uh he said like

00:09:37.040 when they shut down the miami tire place cradled and he has a lot of opinion and he runs a

00:09:42.600 reclamation business and he does a lot of reclamation of the minds and when you talk to

00:09:47.920 him he's highly intelligent and some of these like you know like these woke environmentalists

00:09:52.500 because he went to a bar and had a beer like how many beer did that take and they were really

00:09:56.280 going for insulting him and i thought wow you guys are so out of touch the least one he didn't

00:10:04.920 even finish the beer two um i bought it because he had a bud and i didn't want to put bud in my

00:10:10.860 video you know that's why he flipped it and i thought but here he is when you listen to him

00:10:15.820 talk he's far more intelligent than i thought for a second based on looking at him like he had a

00:10:23.880 history he understood the community he cares about the community and then when i was there

00:10:28.240 people were literally coming to me on the street and saying hey thank you thank you because they

00:10:33.660 don't have the ability to fight korban or george canyon you know what i mean they don't they're

00:10:38.200 not that they're not that this is a different fight for them they're just trying to live their

00:10:43.320 lives and when 80 of your bills are paid by property taxes your community is this close

00:10:51.420 to cradling so here here is my message to everybody out there industry pays taxes taxes

00:11:00.760 pay for things it's a complete different argument and i and listen i'm not saying i'm for autonomous

00:11:08.180 haul trucks i don't believe there's gonna be in these situations but autonomy is something we all

00:11:13.000 have to face but it's more than just the jobs it provides a tax base so the community can have

00:11:20.720 services it can have things like i live in fort mcmurray and we we are fine for services right

00:11:28.340 we have a lot here because of industry and the jobs are also important i think you're going to

00:11:33.900 have 400 jobs immediately the spin-off jobs will come i mean there's already a beautiful golf course

00:11:40.600 in that community now when they had to move the golf course and it is absolutely beautiful this

00:11:45.840 is so much and then if you research these coal mines all over the world and when they open it

00:11:51.080 they're run responsibly the communities benefit and i would make an argument i i've never seen

00:11:56.920 just boom here's a golf course here's your clubhouse there you go that is pretty good and

00:12:02.500 that area is beautiful you know and i mean and there's so much more like like tonight actually

00:12:08.500 in my office i'm hosting the the alberta tourism minister and um so he's coming here tonight and

00:12:14.560 one of the things we're going to discuss is like how do we get a relationship between industry

00:12:19.440 and a little bit of bonus tourism because you know what tourism never went to crow's nest pass

00:12:23.860 after they promised them all this tourism there's no tourism there not like you see at jasper or

00:12:30.400 or Banff or Kananaskis and like you can have both industry and tourism can work together

00:12:37.320 yeah it I want the people of Blairmore to have what Fort McMurray has or for that matter Cold

00:12:44.320 Lake or Bonneville or any of these other oil and gas communities where you roll up to the local

00:12:50.120 hockey rink and there's a big sign that says sponsored by Synovus but this would be sponsored

00:12:54.620 by the coal community it's not just the tax base it's the sponsorship that comes along with that

00:13:02.160 from the big companies and these celebrities they can send their kids to play hockey and whatever

00:13:08.940 rink they want they can send their kids to elite hockey schools but you know the what this means

00:13:15.480 to a small town is just enormous now what what do the people in town think of these celebrities

00:13:23.600 from outside telling them they can't have this industry i've never seen so much hate that i saw 0.93

00:13:33.280 before before i mean it was i saw an article where someone called him a woke bastard yeah it was

00:13:39.800 insane um and i'm heading back there right away i did a few news and then i'm going to be doing a

00:13:44.580 big thing but that being said um i've never seen such hate and just like they want this to work

00:13:51.960 they want this mine, voted for

00:13:54.260 this mine, they voted for it

00:13:55.900 oh I didn't know that, yeah they had a vote

00:13:58.020 and out of all the people that showed up

00:14:00.280 to vote, it was 75% that

00:14:02.140 supported the coal mine

00:14:03.100 so it's like, they had a

00:14:06.260 vote, and still

00:14:07.840 they're being hit left, right, and center

00:14:10.000 so I, like

00:14:11.940 and then you know, I'm getting more critiques than normal 0.99

00:14:13.920 like why are you doing this and blah blah blah, I don't give two shits 0.98

00:14:16.060 I will fight for resource 0.96

00:14:18.100 families and workers

00:14:19.200 part i fight for indigenous rights too i fight for you know i want i want like like i very much

00:14:26.660 focus on indigenous getting their piece of the pie and industry surviving and i fight for that 0.95

00:14:31.620 and i will but my mistake and all my advocacy from taking down that you know that hypocrite

00:14:38.740 jane fonda who actually should have been grateful for the fossil fuel industry because that's what 0.93

00:14:43.200 keeps her face up but that behemoth said um i took her down when she was here and i will fight

00:14:49.160 corlan and i'm not scared of george canyon either that was the most bizarre video i've ever seen

00:14:53.800 like i thought he was drunk was the weirdest like i'm sitting by a creed like come on buddy you 0.94

00:15:01.080 like you're worth millions of dollars shut up like stick a scene in your country song like

00:15:05.460 seriously but that's okay i don't i don't fight like that like i celebrities have the right as i 0.51

00:15:11.060 do I will I will hit back in that sense but bottom line is when I was in that community I I I felt

00:15:17.420 so bad for those people because they are just wanting this they do a vote they and then they're

00:15:23.000 just so attacked like like it's it's unbelievable the amount of personal attacks they're getting

00:15:28.800 for standing up for full like it is insane I met this lady she's super super nice I was at her

00:15:36.480 house she has peacocks like i love peacocks or it was just such a beautiful little setting with

00:15:43.520 a mountain in the background and you know she's in a wheelchair and she wants this for her community

00:15:50.060 i met so many people who support it and it's like now they're being attacked by these

00:15:54.880 millionaire seniors and these millionaire ranchers and i believe a ranch and coal mining can coexist

00:16:00.640 this peacefully and they can do great things now one of the things that really bothers me

00:16:09.460 is that people who know better like george canyon are peddling in the same disinformation that we

00:16:15.960 heard about the oil sands that the water is contaminated that there won't be any monitoring

00:16:21.420 we know the aer the alberta energy regulator routinely monitors all heavy industry including

00:16:28.600 oil and gas and mines and this project won't be any different um it this isn't an open strip mine

00:16:38.340 either from what i understand so it won't even be ugly to look at you know like i i'm all for

00:16:44.420 open strip mining by the way don't get me wrong but it is you know it's a scar on the landscape

00:16:49.120 until such time as it's reclaimed this isn't even that it's not going to cause any of that

00:16:55.280 destruction to the visual

00:16:57.280 like it's still an open

00:16:59.360 pit but it's at the top

00:17:01.200 and so it's basically reclaiming

00:17:03.260 an abandoned mine and they're going to clean

00:17:05.360 it up there's a ton of recycling stuff

00:17:07.340 that would happen and they're going to hide it up

00:17:09.300 and that's from my understanding

00:17:10.420 and it's going to create 400 jobs

00:17:13.260 I think it's like 20 years like it's a good

00:17:15.440 amount of employment and candidly

00:17:17.360 the world needs Matt

00:17:19.180 Cole it's Matt Cole

00:17:21.300 and here's the part that really blows my mind

00:17:23.620 like

00:17:24.000 british columbia's number one export is coal

00:17:27.920 why the hell has alberta suddenly punished our coal export 0.99

00:17:32.920 why why are we so insanely stupid in this province like we could sell coal too 0.99

00:17:40.500 and that would create jobs not everybody wants to move to fort mcmurray 1.00

00:17:45.460 some people want to stay in their communities they there there's jobs

00:17:50.620 there's tax benefits the world is not stopping selling coal david eby is not saying hey no more

00:17:58.120 coal in british columbia he's selling coal they're all selling coal jim pattison is one of the owners 0.93

00:18:04.620 of the mines like i really think we need to get get our shit together and and work forward to

00:18:11.400 make things better yeah and i see i i see a lot of these elbows up types who are against this coal

00:18:18.220 mine but if you want to

00:18:20.220 build Canada at record

00:18:21.980 rates which obviously isn't happening

00:18:24.260 but if that's what you say you want to do

00:18:26.360 you need metallurgical coal

00:18:28.360 to build things. Exactly

00:18:30.100 yeah no and I

00:18:32.320 think that's the biggest like I don't think

00:18:34.140 people understand okay you want to make the

00:18:35.800 argument too so there's

00:18:38.340 the whole separation argument right

00:18:40.200 now so 95

00:18:42.080 percent of

00:18:44.080 Alberta's money is already coming

00:18:46.220 from the Americans

00:18:47.100 right now as we speak maybe not quite that high but i know that oil is our biggest i think it is

00:18:53.220 pretty close though it's a majority of alberto's money comes from so if you're going to make the

00:18:57.760 the forever canada argument you need other things to sell for the world to pay for the bills so

00:19:03.680 you're not dependent on one country and i i just don't understand it the world needs coal they need

00:19:10.420 net coal they need to build steel we need to like if we're going to be rebuilding and making the

00:19:15.620 world a better place and canada's part of it that that's what we need so we really should get these

00:19:21.220 minds open not just that one you've got like you've got a ton of them that are being proposed

00:19:26.320 now and and let's just be candid like you know i have i've only i've never really criticized

00:19:31.760 rachel notley i i was supportive of the transmitter pipeline but when she like it's such when i i

00:19:39.040 actually met a hardcore ndp person this person votes ndp all the time and she was a counselor

00:19:44.860 in parkland county and she said when they shut the coal down it got it just in like seven eight 0.98

00:19:51.380 years people were losing their home grand cash all these places they don't give a shit if they 0.94

00:19:56.520 lose their homes it's just sort of like well whatever you know retrain them like train them

00:20:01.080 what where are these the jobs where are these tourism jobs like let's just be really honest

00:20:05.980 here tourism is a bonus if you're a tourism operator but you're not going to be making

00:20:10.680 that kind of money that you make in the coal mine you know what not now you can have both like

00:20:16.440 like i i just think like you can actually if it's done responsibly the mines could turn that town

00:20:24.160 into a massive tourism destination but here's the flip side not everyone in crow's nest passed once

00:20:30.720 massive tourism they also want to have their homes like everyone else so i think it's an

00:20:37.060 interesting but i did i we've got to support coal and albertan's got to get behind coal and we need

00:20:42.840 to fight for coal yeah nobody wants to go on a luxury summer vacation in a derelict ghost town

00:20:48.980 you know um robbie how do people find the work that you're doing to give voice to the people

00:20:56.780 of blairmore and the crow's nest pass and look at dot ca and robbie picard on facebook and go

00:21:02.600 to RobbiePicard.com. I'm reviewing my new website. Sign up. It's going to be state of the art and

00:21:08.040 I'm going to do a little bit more videos and stuff. And and it's going to be weird. I'm trying

00:21:13.160 to make it work. So it's also going to have like I cook Kiki to work yesterday. My parrot, I had her

00:21:17.900 on my shoulder all day. I'm a very strange person and I'm just going to be me and promote what I

00:21:23.380 believe in. Wow. I love that you're you fighting for families just like mine, Robbie. Thank you so

00:21:29.520 much for coming on the show and i just appreciate the work that you're doing to bring a voice to

00:21:35.740 the common folk that they're just being run over by these celebrities well not for longer because

00:21:41.740 we are going to step up and handle it awesome thanks buddy thank you for having me perfect

00:21:48.320 all right friends as always the last portion of the show goes to you

00:21:59.060 our beloved viewer at home because without you there's no rebel news if you want to send me

00:22:04.500 viewer feedback you can send it to me at my email address it's sheila at rebelnews.com

00:22:09.260 put gun show letters in the subject line and who knows you might just see your email read on air

00:22:15.780 but that's not the only place i go poking around looking for your viewer feedback i want to see

00:22:20.520 the comments being left on all of our videos on youtube or on rumble for a couple of different

00:22:27.420 reasons. I care what you think about what we do, because we don't take any money from the

00:22:31.700 government. So I better darn well care what you think about what I'm doing. But also because

00:22:38.520 your engagement with our work, you know, those comments, the likes, the shares, it actually

00:22:44.140 helps us get higher up in algorithms, so that more people see rebel news. And today's viewer

00:22:51.520 feedback actually comes on a little project that I'm doing called avilewis.com. Did you know that

00:22:58.180 that website is owned by Rebel News on the new NDP leader? And we are going to dedicate that website

00:23:06.160 to some of his greatest radical hits and showing people exactly who he is. A champagne socialist,

00:23:15.420 anti-israel environmental extremist and i've got actually my first video coming up besides the 0.64

00:23:26.860 video where i launched the website about how he treated a woman who was a victim of female genital

00:23:34.500 mutilation in an interview it's quite appalling but man did she hold her own and the woman many

00:23:41.260 of you who are regular watchers of rebel news and the culture clash of the west versus extremist

00:23:49.820 radical islam will know her she's ian hersey ali so let's go to the comment section shall we

00:23:58.700 on the campaign launch video douglas jenner 5064 says anyone with a functioning brain between their 0.59

00:24:05.340 ears are sick of rich socialists trying to impose their will on normal tax-paying patriots it's true

00:24:11.100 The thing with rich socialists is that they are rich enough to either pay for their bad ideas or escape their bad ideas.

00:24:19.740 The rest of us have to live with them.

00:24:22.500 J.R. McNeely, MU3IK, says,

00:24:27.240 Amazing how spoiled rich these socialists are.

00:24:29.940 They're happy to steal your resources, but never, ever give a single penny from their personal pockets to help anyone,

00:24:34.960 but declare that they personally donated every tax dollar or donation that gets received to these communist programs.

00:24:39.460 they don't help people they want to help people with your money through taxes and and i think if

00:24:48.520 you want to help somebody help somebody that's why i believe in charity but don't force me to do it

00:24:53.440 which is what rich socialists do mike nicholas 1019 says we need to repair canada the last

00:25:02.840 thing we need is a self-entitled spoiled rich boy running anything in government

00:25:06.400 where's the lie 1.00

00:25:08.760 Eve Gott says

00:25:11.200 nationalizing industries that's called communism

00:25:13.620 yeah and it's failed everywhere

00:25:15.580 I mean if we need a recent

00:25:17.580 example we can just look at Venezuela

00:25:19.200 they nationalized their oil and gas sector

00:25:21.260 and then it collapsed

00:25:22.160 even though it's oil rich

00:25:25.840 Alberta is in a different place

00:25:29.920 we don't want to nationalize anything

00:25:31.500 we just want to build

00:25:32.440 and we have an obstructionist federal government

00:25:34.860 they nationalized

00:25:37.080 their oil and gas sector in Venezuela

00:25:39.920 and then didn't know how to run it

00:25:41.640 because all the people

00:25:46.080 with any level of expertise said

00:25:47.860 we're out of here

00:25:49.460 they expropriated drilling rigs there

00:25:52.340 and then didn't have any experts to run them

00:25:55.680 I mean

00:25:57.840 we've all seen the latter

00:25:59.720 if we want an example of

00:26:02.340 how government builds things

00:26:03.920 we've also all seen the Trans Mountain pipeline came in, what, 800% over budget and several years

00:26:10.440 late? No thanks. Gmax9797 says Carney is destroying Canada on purpose. $1.4 trillion

00:26:21.080 in debt to create a crisis to usher in digital ID and Canadians are out to lunch. Well, Carney is

00:26:27.760 doing that but he's going to have help from his friend abby lewis to learn more go to abbylewis.com

00:26:35.180 all right you guys that's the show for tonight thank you so much for tuning in we'll see everybody

00:26:40.020 back here in the same time in the same place next week and as always don't let the government tell

00:26:44.260 you that you've had too much to think

00:26:57.760 You

Rebel News Podcast - May 28, 2026

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ 75% of Blairmore residents want a coal mine — so why are outside activists allowed to block it？

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